Gadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of the independent
daily Chernovik, was murdered in Makhachkala, capital of Russia's southern
republic of Dagestan, on December 15, 2011. The slaying was brazen, coming on the
national Day of Remembrance for journalists killed in the course of their work.
The late-evening assault took place outside Chernovik's
newsroom, located on Makhachkala's Magomed Gadzhiev Street. Equipped with numerous
security cameras, the street is a throughway for government motorcades,
including that of the regional president. Nobody moves undetected there. But Kamalov's
slaying is yet to be solved.

Nadira Isayeva, a 2010 CPJ
International Press Freedom Award winner, has been
living in exile since she left her native Dagestan, in Russia's volatile North
Caucasus, in November 2011. Isayeva, the editor-in-chief of the independent weekly Chernovik, had been harassed by security
forces for her relentless, critical coverage of their heavy-handed
anti-terrorism operations in the region. Yet she was hesitant to leave, unable
to imagine herself not reporting on these issues.

After
fellow human rights advocates finally convinced Isayeva to leave, she came to
New York, where she works as a fellow at Columbia University's Harriman Institute.
(The interview has been edited).

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Crisis in East Africa

Fifty-seven journalists fled their country in the past year, with Somalia sending the
greatest number into exile. Journalists also fled Ethiopia, Eritrea, and
Rwanda--mostly for Kenya and Uganda. Exiles in East Africa must grapple with
poverty and fear. A CPJ special report by María Salazar-Ferro and Tom Rhodes

New York, December 16,
2011--Russian authorities must carry out an urgent and effective
investigation into Thursday
night's assassination of Gadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of the independent
weekly Chernovik, which had tackled highly
sensitive topics in the southern republic of Dagestan, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today.

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New York,
December 15, 2011--Today's
murder of Gadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of the independent newspaper Chernovik in the southern Russian republic of
Dagestan today is a lethal blow to press freedom, said the Committee to Protect
Journalists.

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A masked assailant apparently lying in wait fired 14 times
as Kamalov, founder of the independent weekly Chernovik, was leaving work shortly before midnight. Kamalov, 46, who
was also a contributing editor and writer, died en route to a local hospital. A
Chernovik staffer who witnessed the
murder through an office window told CPJ that the assailant fled the scene in a
Lada Priora.

Chernovik, the
most popular newspaper in Dagestan, was known for its independence and
courageous coverage of government corruption, human rights abuses, and Islamic
radicalism. From 2008
until 2011, Chernovik and five of its
journalists, including then-editor and CPJ International Press Freedom Award
winner Nadira
Isayeva, were subjected to a politically motivated prosecution
on trumped-up "extremism" charges stemming from the paper's critical coverage of
regional police and the federal security service. The journalists were acquitted
of the charges in May.

Biyakai Magomedov, editor of Chernovik, told CPJ that Kamalov had not disclosed recent threats.
But a family member told the regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel that threats had been commonplace since the paper
was launched in 2003. "Since the time Chernovik
started publishing, there have been a number of threats, and he had foes,"
Khadzhimurad Radzhabov, a cousin and colleague of Kamalov, told Kavkazsky Uzel.

In recent television interviews, Kamalov had made critical
comments about alleged regional government corruption. "Dagestan is sinking
into idleness, into misguided scattering of federal money," Kavkazsky Uzel quoted Kamalov as saying
in a February interview with the national television channel NTV. "You would
not see a single Russian region with a bigger quantity of restaurants, banquet
halls, saunas, casinos, and hookah parlors as Makhachkala."

Kamalov's name was among 16 included on a "death list"
published anonymously and distributed in the form of a handout in Makhachkala
in September 2009, according to Russian press reports. The handout, which named
eight journalists among its targets, called for "destruction of the bandits and
revenge for police officers and peaceful citizens."

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists, May 2011

Pakistan pledges justice

Pakistan's president committed to pursue justice for journalists killed in the line of duty, pledging to take steps to reverse the country's rising record of impunity. A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, headed by outgoing Chairman Paul Steiger, met with President Asif Ali Zardari on World Press Freedom Day. The CPJ group urged him to ensure that journalists are free to report on sensitive issues. The president's commitment will be monitored by CPJ and national press freedom groups.

New York, May 19, 2011--TheCommittee to Protect Journalists welcomes today's court ruling
in the southern republic of Dagestan, which acquitted Editor Nadira Isayeva
and four reporters with the Makhachkala-based independent weekly Chernovik of long-standing, politicized extremism
charges.